The present study was conducted to screen the suitable castor (Ricinus communis) cultivar for use in commercial chawki (young age silkworms) rearing of eri silkworm (Samia ricini D.). Five commercially available cultivars of castor viz., NBR-1, Kalpi-6, DCH-519, ICH-66 and DCS-9 were sown in the field and standard package of practices were followed to select the economically viable cultivar in terms of plant growth and yield parameters. The results revealed varying degrees of growth and yield parameters in all five cultivars in terms of plant height, number of leaves per plant and leaf yield at different days after sowing. Among all the cultivars, higher growth and yield parameters was recorded in two cultivars (NBR-1 and Kalpi-6). Further, these two cultivars (NBR-1 and Kalpi-6) were selected for analysis of biochemical constituents. Higher moisture retention capacity (82.65%), protein content (20.60%), carbohydrate content (17.12%) and other leaf quality parameters which are essential for eri young age silkworms (chawki) were recorded in NBR-1. Among the two castor cultivars fed to eri-silkworm, NBR-1 fed worms recorded higher larval weight and more uniformity compared to Kalpi-6 fed worms. The results indicate suitability of NBR-1 cultivar in terms of growth, yield, biochemical constituents and eri young age silkworm rearing. Therefore, NBR-1 is recommended for commercial eri chawki rearing in view of the higher leaf yield obtained at different intervals in a year and superior in improving the rearing performance of eri chawki. Based on these findings a standard package of practice to raise NBR-1 cultivar for chawki rearing has been developed.

BACKGROUNDLocally advanced breast cancer (LABC) is a common presentation in India with patients presenting with large breast masses with skin involvement or matted axillary nodes, which constitutes 40% of the clinical presentation in medical institutions. The advent of neoadjuvant chemotherapy has radically changed the management of locally advanced breast cancer and a complete response is reported to significantly improve disease free survival. In this study, an attempt was made to check impact of NACT on LABC downstaging as well as assessment of association of clinical response in ER/PR positive LABC cases. Study Design-Case series of 50 locally advanced breast cancer cases.